CROSS LANES, W.Va. — The Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office has released additional information regarding the death of a teenager in Cross Lanes earlier this month.
According to the release, On November 6 around 7:10 p.m., deputies had responded to calls from parents of the victim reporting a shooting on Kelly Road in Cross Lanes. When deputies arrived at the scene, they discovered Bryce Tate, 15, deceased inside the residence from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Tate was a student at Nitro High School.
Once at the scene, deputies recovered Tate’s cellphone and gave it over to the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office Digital Forensic Lab. In that examination, they discovered communication that indicated Tate had been targeted in an online sextortion scheme. Deputies said the communication began on November 6, around 4:30 and continued until minutes before his death.
KCSO’s explained that sextortion is a form of online exploitation where offenders try to coerce or manipulate victims into sending sensitive or intimate images. Offenders achieve this by pretending be another teenager or by using fake social media accounts. Once they obtain these pictures, they threaten to release them unless the victim complies with demands, which typically is money, but could also be additional images, or both.
The sheriff’s office the investigation is still active and is being handled by the FBI Pittsburgh due to the interstate and digital nature of the case.